Dance devised by John Drewry April 2004. Revised in June 2004 after teaching the dance in Morland in Cumbria.
NOTE by John Drewry: I had a letter from Susan Hagen, who lives in Oslo, requesting a dance with this title. The dance is to be performed at a ball in the British Ambassador’s Residence in October. She sent me a booklet about the residence, which is called “Villa Frognæs”. I have based Bars 41-56 of the dance on the design above the oriel window. I did go once north of the Arctic Circle in Norway with a Swiss friend. We flew separately to Oslo and then went by train to Narvik. From there we went by cargo boat northwards until, after calling in various ports, we rounded the North Cape and reached Honningsvåg where we stayed for a few days.
We were amused to see people from the various tourist ships taken to see a Lappish village with the Lapps living in tents made of reindeer skin. Once the buses had taken the tourists back to their ships, the Lapps returned to their comfortable houses in the town.
NOTE by James Gray about the music: “The Oslo Scottish Country Dance Group asked John Drewry to write a dance called The Arctic Circle which had its premiere in Villa Frognæs, the residence of the British ambassador in Oslo. The tune has specially constructed phrasing to fit the dance.”